We are an organization dedicated to raising awareness about the history, culture and true lives of Romani people worldwide.
We confront racism and oppression wherever we encounter it.
We try to make connections with all the "isms" that make up western culture.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

MEMORIAL

Roma Memorial: Apology or
Hypocrisy?

The German Chancellor,
Angela Merkel, this week unveiled a
memorial, in Berlin, for the Romani men, women and children who were murdered by Nazi
Germany, during World War II. Almost 70 years since the liberation of Nazi
extermination camps, this memorial is long overdue, yet this is hardly
surprising when Germany only formally recognised the genocide of the Romani
people in 1982. Perhaps it should be a time to celebrate, indeed it could be
seen as a sign of progress in the fight for equality, but for me this memorial
reflects hypocrisy rather than apology.

Under the expansion of the European Union, and the
protection of ‘human rights’ this alliance provides, it would be true to say
that Europe’s Romani population are no longer facing the threat of genocide in
the traditional sense of the word, yet behind the façade of equality legislation
lies a genocide of another kind – a genocide of
culture.

While Merkel vowed her
‘sadness and shame’ at the extermination of an estimated 500,000 Romani people,
it was perhaps convenient that she failed to remember the 10,000 Roma refugees
who were deported back to Kosovo in 2010. Roma children, born and
raised in Germany, expelled to a land they did not know. Their parents,
returning to a land they fled from, where they had once faced the threat of
death; with no hope for employment, and no faith that anything had
changed.

Meanwhile in France,
tens of thousands of Roma families have been deported to Romania and Bulgaria
since 2009, however while the international community feigned condemnation, they
appeared blind to the reality that the Romani people face extreme discrimination
all over Europe. Sterilization, segregated education, forced evictions, absolute
poverty, unemployment, third world living conditions, exclusion from political
participation, forced assimilation – this is the reality for the Romani people,
who are not only facing discrimination on a state level, but who are contending
with neo-Nazi thought that is increasingly gripping European
populations.

Time and time again, we
have politicians and commentators, from across Europe, referring to this
deplorable situation as the ‘Roma Problem’, with the likes of François Hollande going as far as proposing forced
deportations as a ‘Roma Solution’. It was not from within the Romani community
that these inequalities were formed; antizignanism is the product of the
non-Romani world, thus it is not a ‘Roma Problem’ but a ‘Racist European
Problem’ for which there is only one solution: tolerance. Tolerance, however, is
reserved only for the non-Romani, indeed it could be said that Europe are more
interested in planning ‘the final solution of the Romani
question’.

While genocide is no
longer a policy employed by European governments, it is safe to say very little
has changed for the Romani people post World War II. Though antisemitism is
still present, the situation for Jewish people has improved significantly. While
there are still pockets of archaic attitudes towards Jewish people, such as
their political exclusion in Bosnia and Herzegovina; the scale of the atrocities committed
against them and the poignant images of their suffering that remain etched into
our minds, have lingered as a reminder that this must never happen again. The
Jewish population will never forget the Holocaust, yet the change of attitudes
towards them has allowed a platform for which they have been able to rebuild
their lives, and reinstate their position in society.

This, however, has not
been the case for the Romani people. While the memorial opened in Berlin this
week makes certain that the Porajmos cannot be airbrushed from the history
books, it says very little about the commitment to prevent it happening again.
Yes, there should be memorials for those who were murdered, but a water feature
in Berlin means very little when Nazi attitudes towards the Romani people are
still very much alive in Europe. Germany, and its war time allies, have a
responsibility to learn from the horrors of the past and should be at the
forefront of any initiatives promoting equality for the Romani
people.

No compensation has
ever been rewarded to the survivors of the Porajmos, or to the families of those
who were murdered. As a relative of Porajmos victims, I know all too well that
no price can be put on the lives of those who were lost, and while justice can
never fully be served, the sorrow could be eased if Germany were to compensate
the victims through a financial and sincere commitment to exterminating
antiziganism, rather than exterminating Romani
culture.

If I have children, I
want them to go to school and read not a line in a text book about the Porajmos,
but a chapter. It should not be some second thought, and the deaths of 500,000
Romani people should not have been in vain. Europe should have learnt from these
atrocities, but instead have allowed Nazi attitudes to linger and thrive.
Memorials are built so that we don’t forget, but it seems Europe do not wish to
be reminded of their responsibilities. As for the Romani, how can we ever
forget? We suffer the same as our forefathers and while they no longer kill us,
they won’t let us live either.

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FLAG OF THE ROMA

LOLO DIKLO : RrOMANI AGAINST RACISM

Lolo Diklo : Rromani Against Racism is an organization dedicated to providing information about the true situation of the Romani (Gypsies) in the world today. We are committed to confronting racism and oppression wherever it is found.

BACKGROUND

The Romani are a people who are not very well known. We are an ethnic group of people originally from India. We left India and arrived in Europe sometime in the 1300's. There are many theories as to why we left India. This is the work of academics, and we have some. Most Romani are more concerned about daily survival to worry about documentation of our past. We know who we are.

What is known about the Romani is, for the most part, stereotypically based. We are portrayed as romantic, carefree wonderers or child stealers, pick pockets and beggers.

Today the Romani of Europe face the same discrimination they have faced for centuries.